Lee Orchard Photography

Well its friday! What a week it seems to have been, although everything that was a problem at the beginning of the week is sorted! Disk problem with the PC, the brakes on the car, all sorted!

This means I can have a relaxing weekend without worrying about any of that and looking forward to getting the new PC next week!

Also last Friday of month at work means Doughnut Day!

And of course the icing on the cake is I get to see my Girlfriend tonight!

So what’s the plan for the weekend? Well I don’t think the weather is going to be too good tomorrow, so probably spend that at home, maybe I’ll tackle the bathroom sink hot tap, as that’s not working!  Sunday I think will be better so may be able to go out some where?

I would like to write something a bit more cheerful and uplifting in my blog today, as the last few entries, it has all been a bit dull and technical.  However its finding something positive at the moment.  It now looks like I have some problem with the car, brakes or warped discs was the last suggestion.

So what is postive at the moment?  PC is sorted and a new one on the way, but thats not interesting.

The craft fair was very good.  It was the best non xmas craft fair I had done. I had created some new ruler designs, so new infact they are not currently on the website (also so new that I thought I had lost them in the recent pc crash). One was a long ruler design of WWII fighter aircraft and the other was a short ruler design of tigers. I took 3 of each and sold all of them!

Also the first item I sold was my most expensive item, a framed print of the Trafalgar Celebrations Flags photo.

Following the success of the Tigers short ruler, I have created a Snow Leopard version.  The problem is now, I have so many ruler and coaster designs it is difficult to make sure I have enough of each design at the shows.

Positive things:

Seeing my Girlfriend friday!, weekend is nearly here, house is tidy, lounge is nearly all painted. I don’t like being negative, but sometimes it just stacks up!

Update: Car is now sorted!! Great News!

At last it looks like things are getting back to normal on the PC front, although still a few things to do.

As I thought, buying the HDD enclosure allowed me to access the HDDs from my old PC, which were still working ok.  So last night I removed each disk in turn from the old PC, plugged it in the HDD enclosure powered it up and just plugged it in to the USB on the laptop. It recognised it as an external drive and then it was just a matter of copying data.  Easy!

What a relief! Most worthwhile £35 pounds I’ve spent in ages.  It has allowed me to get a load of printing templates off the old C: and some missing photos and new product designs from the D:

I have always been careful about backing up and always do so 1 month and recently, more often, with the purchase of my 80gb mobile external drive.  So, with the failure of the old pc it didn’t lose too much and last night I regained the missing data.

This new enclosure will not be wasted. My old D: Photo Library will go in the new PC.  The mobile 80gb drive will be just that, & regularly backing up.  I was surprised it had 50gb of photos on it already.  It maybe end up being an offsite backup. The old C: drive, when I’m convinced I have all data off it, will become a new external 200gb backup to reflect the D: Photo Library.

Now all that remains is to get the new PC, config it, and plug in the Photo Library disk.

PC’s, love them or hate them they are a necessity, especially if you are a digital photographer.  Of couse that means they are also a worry, as data storage is still an unknown in the long run.  So I think, backup regularly, check the disks, and every few years recopy the data from a source you know is ok to new media. Always try and keep it on the latest proven media, as you never know when that 650mb CD will not be recognised by a new DVD drive! I’ve had that happen as well!

I think flash will be the replacement to DVDs, and maybe hardisks, but it is still too expensive. I believe the largest flash hard disk is only 32gb, so flash has a little way to go yet.

I haven’t written anything in the last few days, so I thought I had better try write something.

The last week has been quite busy. Firstly I have had to try and work out what to do about my computer.  I had the first problem with the USB ports, and it ended up that it just wouldn’t boot or show anything on the screen. So my hope that the USB port card I bought would fix it, just was a non starter.

I believe that the HD drives are still working and so I have bought and external HD box so I can access some of the data on the drives.  Secondly, I have ordered a new pc. This has worked out quite reasonable, and I think can use the second HDD out of the old pc as a second drive in the new one.

I was trying to make up my mind on whether to buy a laptop or not, but that decided, that for time being to continue with a desktop as my workhorse PC.  The laptop can follow later on.

Reasons for this are that I don’t like the idea of having to plug all the cables into the laptop each time you want to use it with a bigger screen or print something. I print a lot as you can probably guess.  Also if a laptop is being used remotely I don’t like using them for hours just with the laptop screen and the mouse pointer.  I think the right tool for the job.  Desktop as a workhorse and laptop for occasional remote access or for when I give talks and presentations.

So the HDD enclosure turned up today, so I can get some of the info back of the old PC tonight.  Great!  The new pc will turn up in just over a week, so that is good new too!

Apart from all of that, what else is new.  Well not much to report on the photography front at the moment.  Things are a bit restricted on what I can do.  The craft fair went very well and the weather stayed dry. Also I have some new images for products after my recent trip to Birdland, nice flamingos, king penguins, owls and parrots.

I suppose I should try and write a report on the trip, in an effort to improve my writing skills just in case in the future I get to submit some photos to a magazine that requires an accompanying written article.

So it looks like I will be doing more work in the pc front tonight to try and get some issues sorted out.